Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To deceive, cheat; betray
  • verb transitive To stop, blin, cease
  • adjective Deceitful; treacherous
  • noun dialectal Deceit; treachery
  • noun A deceiver; betrayer, traitor
  • noun A hiding place; den; cave

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English swiken, from Old English swīcan ("to wander, depart, cease from, yield, give way, fail, fall short, be wanting, abandon, desert, turn traitor, deceive, rebel"), from Proto-Germanic *swīkanan (“to dodge, swerve, avoid, betray”), from Proto-Indo-European *sweig-, *swAig- (“to turn, move around, wander, swing”). Cognate with Scots swike ("to cheat, deceive"), Middle Low German swīken ("to yield, elude, escape"), Middle High German swīchen ("to abandon"), Icelandic svikja ("to betray").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word swike.

Examples

  • [146] The Saxon Chronicle contradicts itself as to Algar's outlawry, stating in one passage that he was outlawed without any kind of guilt, and in another that he was outlawed as swike, or traitor, and that he made a confession of it before all the men there gathered.

    Harold : the Last of the Saxon Kings — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • [146] The Saxon Chronicle contradicts itself as to Algar's outlawry, stating in one passage that he was outlawed without any kind of guilt, and in another that he was outlawed as swike, or traitor, and that he made a confession of it before all the men there gathered.

    Harold : the Last of the Saxon Kings — Volume 12 Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • _ B | | tuteles | anan B | | 71. toward | towart C | | for hwil he B | | seos | sið C | | 72. he þe swike þenches t {us} | | for B

    Selections from early Middle English, 1130-1250 Part I: Texts Joseph Hall

  • Þeos ȝeol ` e´we [froggen bi {} tacneð þeos wimmen þe claþeð heom mid ȝeoluwe] claþe. for þe ȝeolewe clað is þes deofles helfter. þeos wi {m} men þe þus lu {m} eð beoð þes deofles musestoch iclepede. for þenne þe mon wule tilden his musestoch he bindeð  {110} uppon þa swike chese ⁊ bret hine for þon þ̵ he scolde swote smelle. and þurh þe [f.

    Selections from early Middle English, 1130-1250 Part I: Texts Joseph Hall

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Citation under icumin.

    October 8, 2008

  • there's a swikeful also

    August 24, 2010